New York (CNNMoney) - After weeks of Republican attacks over tightening environmental regulations, President Obama said Friday he would halt a planned increase in clean air standards.

In a statement released just hours after the U.S. Labor Department said the economy created no new jobs in August, Obama said he told Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson to withdraw the draft Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Washington (CNN)- President Obama surprised a group of young environmental organizers Friday during what they thought was just a meeting with White House staffers about energy policy.

"We went in thinking we were meeting with senior staff and there walked in Barack Obama," said Courtney Hight, co-director of Energy Action Coalition, "We got to share with him what we care about."FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - The Obama administration plans to lift the deepwater drilling moratorium that was put in place in the wake of the BP oil spill, two government sources told CNN on Tuesday.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the new head of the government agency overseeing offshore drilling, Michael Bromwich, were scheduled to hold a 1 p.m. news conference on the issue.

The moratorium began after the Gulf oil spill in April, and has drawn criticism from Republicans, Gulf state officials and coastal residents for stopping some oil drilling operations. Salazar has said the moratorium was necessary to ensure a similar accident to the one that caused the Gulf disaster doesn't happen.

Washington (CNN) - White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just wrapped up his morning gaggle with reporters on Tuesday where he announced that the administration is close to lifting the moratorium on off shore oil drilling.FULL POST

(CNN) - More than 100 people protesting mountain-top removal coal mining were arrested Monday outside the White House for failing to obey an order to disperse, the U.S. Park Service said.

All 114 people arrested at the protest against mountain-top mining were later released pending a court date, according to the park service.

The protesters, most from the Appalachian coal-mining states, had a permit to gather in front of the White House, but some failed to follow rules set out in the permit, according to a park service spokesman.

(CNN) - The man who has taken over the government agency that regulates off-shore drilling said Tuesday he can't see the Obama administration's ban on the practice "lasting longer than November 30."

"Obviously, we can't predict everything that we learn or everything that may happen in the outside world before then, but Secretary [Ken] Salazar thought that was an appropriate ending point. I see no information so far that would justify extending the moratorium... not impossible but unlikely," Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (the former Minerals Management Service), said in Mobile, Alabama.

Washington (CNN) - Democrats admit that when it comes to passing comprehensive energy and climate change legislation, they simply do not have the votes.

So in an effort to get something through, the Senate's top Democrat announced that he will introduce a smaller bill in the coming days focusing on specific energy needs.

"Many of us want to do a thorough, comprehensive bill that creates jobs, breaks our addiction to foreign oil and curbs pollution," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Thursday. "Unfortunately, this time we don't have a single Republican to work with in achieving this goal."

Reid had promised to bring a bill to the Senate floor by the August recess.

The Nevada Democrat said he will put four requirements in the new bill:

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday called a six-month halt on deepwater drilling "needed, appropriate and within our authorities" in announcing he will issue a new order on a moratorium just hours after a federal judge blocked such a mandate.

"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar said in a statement. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico."

Salazar's statement did not give an exact date for when the new order would be imposed, saying only "in the coming days."
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President Obama had planned to meet Wednesday with senators from both parties.

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama called Tuesday for the Senate to "stand up and move forward" on the issue in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster.

"This has to be a wake-up call to the country, that we are prepared and ready to move forward on a new energy strategy that the American people desperately want but for which there has been insufficient political will," Obama told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

However, two Senate leadership aides told CNN later Tuesday that the White House abruptly postponed a planned meeting Wednesday with senators from both parties to try to reach agreement on a proposal that can pass the Senate.

The Senate aides, one from each party, did not know why the meeting was called off.

The White House had portrayed the talks as a chance for all participants to pitch their best ideas, similar to the health care summit earlier this year that emboldened Democrats to push through a Senate bill with no Republican support.

However, sharp differences between the two parties are evident, as well as some infighting among Democrats over what kind of final proposal would have a realistic chance of getting the 60 Senate votes needed to pass.